Police arrest man 47 years after committing crime

Police on Thursday arrested a man 47 years after he abducted and murdered a toddler from an Australian beach.

The 63-year-old man, is accused of abducting and killing a three-year-old Cheryl Grimmer, whose disappearance Brad Ainsworth, New South Wales police detective, told reporters that the man, who was once considered as a person of interest, was arrested in Melbourne.

From a beach in the town of Wollongong, south of Sydney, puzzled officials for decades.

“I’m not going to get into the specifics of the actual detail of the offences, but I can say that they’re quite horrific and they’ll be unfolding in court,” Ainsworth said.

Grimmer vanished from a changing area at Fairy Meadow Beach, where she had spent the morning with her mother and three brothers.

She was never seen again and her body was never found.

Police believe Grimmer died within an hour of her abduction, Ainsworth said.

The arrested man was 16 when Grimmer went missing and he had been interviewed in the months after the toddler disappeared, but was never charged. Police reopened the case last year.